Serica Energy has provided an organisation and operations update, charting the successful operations it has carried out in the North Sea since September.
The latter half of 2023 has seen Serica successfully carry out the summer shutdowns at both the Bruce and Triton fields. In the former, the shutdown workscope was completed later than planned due to the decision to carry out permanent rather than temporary repairs on the flare tower.
Strong levels of production have been established from both the Bruce and Rhum fields with Serica’s average production entitlement being over 24,000 boe per day during the last four weeks.
Commencing in September, Serica has been conducting its second Light Well Intervention Vessel (LWIV) campaign on the Bruce field. This has involved successfully re-entering three wells to identify areas of scale build-up, perform water shut offs and perforate target intervals. With work on one well still to finish, there has been an uplift in overall production from the re-entered wells of about 2,500 boe per day so far.
Serica has now intervened on five of the subsea wells that form the Western Area Development (WAD) part of the Bruce complex. Since taking over operatorship, Serica has also re-entered fourteen Bruce platform wells. The results have demonstrated the benefits of low cost well interventions and a third LWIV campaign is planned during 2024 which will involve work on both Bruce and Keith wells. The inventory of platform wells on the Bruce field is also being high graded for potential future interventions.
The company is also currently carrying out vessel-based final abandonments of four exploration and appraisal wells on the Keith field and the North Eigg exploration well. This campaign is consistent with the NSTA’s initiative to reduce the number of suspended inactive wells in the UK North Sea. The abandonments are scheduled to be completed in late December 2023.
At Triton, the summer shutdown was completed in September 2023 with the activities carried out including essential fabric maintenance and inspections, a further phase of the control systems upgrade and preparation for the reinstatement of water injection on the Bittern field, which is planned to restart in early 2024. Good production rates are being achieved from all of Serica’s fields in the Triton Area.
During the middle of this year, a rig-based well intervention campaign was carried out on the Guillemot West and North West fields. These were the first such interventions on the fields in over ten years and have resulted in incremental gross daily production of about 1,500 barrels of oil from one well and 12 million cubic feet of gas from another, both of which had been shut-in for lengthy periods.
Mitch Flegg, Chief Executive of Serica, explained, “I am pleased to report the successful conclusion of the planned summer shutdowns on Serica’s Bruce and Triton hubs and the re-establishment of strong levels of production at both. During the last month Serica has been consistently achieving production rates in excess of 50,000 boe per day. Overall production guidance for the year is unchanged reflecting delayed production restarts and slower than expected production ramp-ups after the summer shutdowns.
“I am also pleased to report successful well campaigns on the Bruce and Guillemot fields during 2023. These are further proof of the benefits to be had from low cost, short cycle investments in our existing asset portfolio. The full impact on production of the well work carried out this year is expected to be felt in 2024, aided by the work on the Bruce facilities deferring the need for another major shutdown until 2025.
“The LWIV vessel used on Bruce is already booked for a third campaign in 2024, which will target wells on both the Bruce and Keith fields. We are also looking forward to the start of a four well drilling campaign in the Triton area, with the first well on the Bittern field scheduled to begin around the middle of the first quarter. 2024 is anticipated to be a very busy and impactful year of investments in Serica's North Sea portfolio.”
